This was a spot on review, however, you left out the awesome Anthony Hopkins as Odin who was also perfectly cast. He could pretty much stand there and recite the phone book and it would sound profound.
Well then I think it's important for you to know this: Spoiler The midget wearing clown make up and is dressed like a policeman? He has a Jack Russel Terrier that does adorable tricks. Also, the elephant drinks whiskey and kills the guy, not by stepping on him, but by hitting him with a giant tent pole (!) Ok it wasn't perfect. But Waltz carries the film, it wasn't bad enough to make me angry, and the description "depression era circus drama" immediately won precedence over "Kate Hudson Romantic Comedy" or "men trying hard not to kiss each other in race cars." What can I say, I'm a sucker for a Sepia filtered camera lens.
Thor thoroughly enjoyed it. Fun, good action and effects. Also hit a new milestone in cinema viewing with my daughters. Thor's got scene where he's a Walking around shirtless NAND o I had to tell them to stop drooling
Bridesmaids - I feel fucking deceived. I earnestly wanted to see this movie. The trailers looked decent. Most of the people I follow on Twitter enjoyed it. Some even saw it more than once. Plus there was all the talk about being vulgar, "a chick flick guys will enjoy," "the Hangover starring women," yada yada yada. The movie was just not entertaining. I laughed sporadically throughout the movie, but not enough for a supposed comedy. The pacing was awful, and there were honestly 30 minute stretches where I was bored out of my mind. There were lots of times where something might be funny, but Wiig leaned on her SNL-style of just running with the joke in that scene over and over. They beat more horses than the Kentucky Derby. The worst part was when they did this same gag of stretching a 2 minute SNL style gag into 10 minutes, and it wasn't even funny to begin with. Verdict: 3/10. Save your money. ========================================= Atlas Shrugged - This played immediately after Bridesmaids and after suffering through that 2 HOUR mess, I decided to see Atlas Shrugged for some hearty laughs. Let me start out by saying that it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting the entire thing to just be a huge trainwreck (see what I did there?). Most of the cast did well, scenery looked ok. But in the end, it was just 90 minutes of people in fancy clothes talking about the strength of metal. So it was not god-awful, but just not entertaining either. Verdict: 4/10. About as entertaining as Bridesmaids, but it gets an extra point for being thirty minutes shorter.
Found this over on Boing Boing: Original story is here: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2011/05/22/misuse_of_3_d_digital_lens_leaves_2_d_movies_in_the_dark/?page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/article ... rk/?page=1</a> Question for everyone: have you noticed this recently?
The Hangover 2- Saw it on a free sneak preview. Take the EXACT same plot, 95% of the same jokes, and 90% of the laughs. I got to hate on it for not trying to do anything different and playing it fucking safer than wearing 3 condoms and jerking off instead of having sex. But I was highly entertained. I laughed quite a bit. It really could have used the bevy of cameos that were supposed to be in it (Gibson, Neeson, and former President Clinton). Nothing new but nothing terrible. Let me say this though Zack Gil-li-fa-nach-us, who Ive only seen in Up In The Air outside of The Hangover, needs to come up with a better schtick than the clueless half retard or he'll see the same diminishing returns Will Farrell has. Justin Bartha must just have it in his contract that he doesn't want to be a major on screen character. I also saw a preview for Horrible Bosses that didnt look that bad.
Thor: Spoilered for size. Spoiler I wish I could be more concise but here it goes... I went to see it based on some recommendations here, and did not expect to see something fantastic, just a comic book movie with some funny lines that would overall be entertaining. While seeing the movie however I felt odd... I wasn't sure if it was just me but I asked the person I went to see the movie with and they too felt it all seemed a little off. Now don't get me wrong I didn't expect huge dramatic scenes just a normal comic book movie but it all went by too fast.. It all felt rushed like they had too many things to get through that they couldn't build on a lot of scenes. Everything felt lacking. I found myself going "Ok. I get it, that's supposed to be the scene where *Insert story building point here*... I see that they wanted to do that but they barely showed me it and just kept going." It felt like they didn't have enough time to do anything, had to cut out most sense of timing, and set it to fast forward. You could tell which type of characters the actors were supposed to be "Oh she's the sister who says some funny things about how odd he is" but the timing was fast and any meat was scrapped out to be able to finish the movie. I wanted to like the characters but they didn't let me because there was no time. It's weird I don't want to give it a bad review because it technically had all the parts of a story. It looked like a real movie plot I'd enjoy, the characters gave signs that they were the characters I'd enjoy, but someone had to cut all the meat out to get to the ending. I'd sit through 3 hours if they needed it, swear to God, I saw they had everything there for an enjoyable movie. After re-reading the reviews here I feel like I need to re-watch it at some point, it felt like it should be my kind of movie yet I didn't feel like there was much to grasp at. Most reviews on RottenTomatoes.com seem positive... Maybe someone slipped something into my drink while I watched it. I'm not a stickler for plot and didn't set my expectations too high, hell I liked Sucker Punch just because some stuff blew up. (Spoilered even though I only vaguely talk about something in the movie) NSFW The more I think of it all the parts on Thor's planet seemed to be filled in more than the scenes on Earth. I honestly think they had too much to go through, and didn't have time to build a relationship on Earth or show him spend time there. When they explained that "he missed her" I was surprised he remembered her name. Summary: How rushed it all felt distracted me from enjoying it.
Hangover 2 To echo what has already been said, the movie was mediocre at best. I don't want to parrot the review that's already up here, so I'll just add a few thoughts: - The plot was predictable and a bit boring after seeing the original. It felt like everyone was trying too hard. I chuckled a few times, but there weren't any really good laughs. - While great in the first film, Allen has become a crutch. 80% of the jokes center around him. By the last third of the movie, he becomes more annoying than funny. - The scenes with Chow are by far the funniest part of the movie. Overall: 6.5/10
The Hangover Part II - In general, I enjoyed it. I think having a sequel to a comedy is generally one of the harder ones to pull off as opposed to action and horror (see Ghostbusters, Weekend at Bernies, American Pie, Fletch, Clerks, Caddyshack... all with sequels that just can't live up to the original). But I think when you put this movie in that perspective it held up better than expected. - I agree that having more Ken Jeong was a great move. - Zach Galawhahoozits' character gets on my nerves sometimes. That might just be me though. I tend to never like characters who act like a fool all the time. He did have some fun moments though. - The movie felt like it had some great highs and low lows. There were parts where I felt bored and would check my phone, and others that were amazing. I think that this movie is going to do well enough that they'll make yet another one. Verdict: 6 out of 10. I felt good enough coming out of that it was worth my matinee ticket price. (Has anyone seen the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie yet? My friend paid $18/ticket to see it in 3D Imax!)
I think you're crazy. I laughed my balls off fairly consistantly throughout the movie. There were a couple slow spots, sure, but when it got going, it had me rolling. The food poisoning sequence literally got laughter tears rolling down my face. I'd give it a solid 7.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides I was fully prepared to think this movie was stupid, and my only reason for going was the lovely Ian McShane, who I would do dirty things to given half the chance. But I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining the movie was. The problem with the second and third was that they got far too bloated, in that they tried to shoehorn every enjoyable character into having some screen time, which left you with a movie that was too long and generally boring. On Stranger Tides fixes this problem, since half the cast did not return, so they had more time to focus on the main characters. There are a few familiar secondary character roles, but nothing overwhelming. On top of that, it has gone back to being a PIRATE movie. Not a movie about politics and big business that happens to feature pirates, but actual piratey things. Drinking, hitting on women, fighting with swords and lewd jokes abound, enough that I was actually surprised by how much I was laughing. Ian McShane as Blackbeard is obviously amazing as the soulless brigand, and Depp brings Sparrow back to being the pirate that was legendary in the first movie, rather than the bumbling idiot of the other two sequels. Penelope Cruz doesn't add a whole lot as Angelica (Blackbeard's daughter), but she is hot and has serious cleavage going on for the majority of the movie, so there isn't much to complain about in that department either. Overall, an entertaining swashbuckling movie about pirates doing pirate things. I think it worth seeing in theatres just to enjoy the full abilities of the Queen Anne's Revenge, seeing as Spoiler the fucking ship shoots FIRE out the front. I don't think that is plausible at all, but sure is awesome. My only gripe with the movie was the dumb priest who was obviously there to be eye candy for young girls, since Orlando Bloom is no longer around. Honestly, I don't know what other reason there was for him to be there, taking his shirt off ALL THE TIME.
I went to Fast Five for the third time today, so I guess it's time I weigh in on it. I love this movie. To me it's not just a good Fast and Furious movie, but it's actually just a good action movie altogether and is a very exciting movie theater experience. It's like a 2 hour adrenaline rush since there are so many action filled sequences. It helps to have seen all of them prior (excluding Tokyo Drift, since apparently they are building the series to end on that movie), but there are some jokes you only understand if you've seen the others. One of the aspects that I like is that they are moving away from the car racing as a theme and toward using the car skills to do crime. It's like a maturation of the characters, that instead of doing little quarter mile races, they are channeling their inner Nicholas Cage from Gone in 60 Seconds. But I like that the main idea is that these guys are the best criminals in the world mainly because Vin Diesel is tough and they can drive really well. I thought it was cool having all the best characters from the other movies. I think Mia is fucking fine, and I would do some nasty things to be with her, and when you have Ludacris and Tyrese in a movie together you know it's gonna be good. This is probably the best Fast and Furious movie of all of them, the only disappointing part was that Spoiler they didn't show the race that won them the blue Porsche. Hopefully it will be in the deleted scenes or extended version If you have somewhat enjoyed the other ones, do yourself a favor and see this in the theater at least at a matinee. And if you do, stay through the first part of the credits. There is a video thrown in there as a teaser for the next movie. I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10 if only for sheer entertainment. But I also own the other 4 F&F movies in a box set. So take my advice with that in mind.
Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D We went today and saw it in 3D. Honestly, the 3D wasn't that great, if you go to see it, see it in 2D. Other than that, it was good. I personally liked the first one better, but if you have kids and want to watch a family movie, you can't really go wrong with the adventures of Po. It picks up with Po being the Dragon Warrior and keeping peace. It covers the back story of how Po the Panda has a dad who is a goose. The way it ends guarantees Kung Fu Panda 3. And probably 4, 5 and 6. For a family movie, I'll give the original a 9.5/10 and this one is probably 8.5/10.
Kung Fu Panda 2: I'll disagree with HundredDollarTerminatorTwo above me, I thought that the 3D in this was done quite well. Dreamworks seems to have a handle on 3D, How to Tame Your Dragon had the best 3D I've ever seen and this was done solidly. Either way, 3D doesn't affect the movie itself, which was still quite good. 8.5/10 is a pretty good representation, it's not quite as good as the original, but being that original was as good as it was it would be pretty hard to top it. If you liked the first one, definitely check it out. If you haven't seen the first, watch that, and then go see this. I just hope they don't fuck everything up and make Kung Fu Panda 17 just because it makes money. Bridesmaids: Pretty good. If you split the movie in half, the first half is awesome, while the second half drags. There were a lot of huge laughs, but the "Heroine is at her lowest point" part of the story goes on for what felt like an hour. Alright, we get it, her life isn't going too well. Move the story along. 7.5-8/10, an enjoyable movie going experience. Pirates of the Caribieienanna: I'm actually rather surprised at the reviews this one has been getting. I thought it was much stronger than the 2nd and 3rd movies by a long shot. It still doesn't compete with the first, but it's not ridiculously stupid, doesn't end with a gigantic anti-climax, and the "fantastical" elements are reduced to just slightly more than the original, which I'm very thankful for. Gets a 7/10. Oh, and Penelope Cruz is boner inducing every time she's on screen. Even when she's mustached.
Priest Just saw this, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Part Road Warrior, part Dark City, part Underworld, and part Matrix, it does a great job of being exactly what it looks like and promises to be; a post-apocalyptic, cool-as-hell, priests-are-ninja-vampire-hunters-and-the-church-controls-all movie with lots of action and cool special effects. Sure, it's not going to win any Oscars or anything, but it sucked me in for the hour and a half. I'd give it a solid 7.5/10 and say it's worth seeing in the theatres.
Fast Five As I'm not a fan (at all) of this series, it's the best of the bunch. The Rock nearly ruins the film entirely with a phoned-in performance, but it lacks the bullshit posteuring, preachy lines and Hype Williams-style video editing I hated SO FUCKING MUCH from the other films, which I was thankful for. Unlike the other films, it also has impressively staged action scenes and stunts, though it's still thoroughly a stupid film populated with stupid characters and one-dimensional villains. Very watchable, but don't think for more than a few seconds because you can fly an Antonov through the plot holes. 6.5/10
Ayyy two more: The Hangover 2: Have you seen the first Hangover? Well, add a few more dicks and you've seen this one, too. It's like a shot for shot remake, except in Thailand. Also- When the night passes in timelapse, they play Kanye's Monster. He says nigger in that song, but they had the clean version (so it just goes Gossip gossip...gossip gossip, it's really weird). Later in the movie, Ken Jeong, the bar owner, and fucking Galifianakis say it. All of whom are not black. Why the hell would you edit out the only black guy saying it, but keep it in there about 4 times, all said by people who aren't black? What the fuck? X-Men: First Class: I thought the first 3/4 of this was really well done. It was way more of a character piece than anything else during that time, there wasn't a lot of action and James McAvoy was fun to follow around for an hour and a half. But the last quarter left a lot to be desired, character motivations were kind of pulled out of nowhere, they had the obligatory "large action scene," and campy dialogue cliches came out of nowhere. An unfortunate ending to what could have been an actually good movie. Nevertheless, one of the better supehero movies definitely overall, so check it out if you're a fan of that genre, you won't be disappointed. Although, if you're not a huge X-Men fan you will be saying, "Who is THAT," because they introduce what are either obscure characters or make new ones up for the movie, either or really, as I had no idea who most of them were supposed to be, outside of the main ones.
X-Men First Class Decent origin story thats much better than you would expect. The character backgrounds are pretty faithful to the comics and although it's almost completely out of canon with the other movies, especially X3, it doesnt fail to entertain. Could it have been better? Definitely. January Jones just isn't a good actress and a few other characters are dead weight. Overall, it's probably the best out of the 5 X-Men movies, if not a close second. Worth checking out in the theater. Spoiler And Hugh Jackman makes a fantastic, hilarious cameo . 8/10
Pirates 4 I don't want to go all Kimaster here, but I wasn't too entertained, and that was seeing it in IMAX. I did appreciate seeing Jack Sparrow moving back to his witty cleverness (in act and word) from the more bumbling idiot character seen in the first two sequels, but Sparrow fell far short of the one seen in the original. To be fair, this is the fourth film, and they can only add so many antics at this point, but the character has still lost his magic, if you will. Overall, good acting, and the action scenes were fun, but I didn't really feel any suspense at any point in the film, save for Spoiler Barbossa appearing in the mist . As previously stated, the abilities of Queen Anne's Revenge were AWESOME, and the addition of Spoiler the Black Pearl in her present state was cool, although clearly more of a set-up for Pirates 5. All in all, no major gripes, but I'm glad I had a free voucher lying around to use. 7/10 Erm, actually, I'm going to have to give it a 752.175/1000...Kidding.
Hangover 2: Saw this Friday night. I went into it expecting a full rehash of the first film, and put aside all expectations of anything different. It is the fucking hangover, they lose someone, and set out to find him. I laughed a lot throughout the movie, even if there were some rehashed jokes (that they no doubt consider 'callbacks'). That said, it is probably because my expectations were lowered, but I thought it was decent. Not as good as the first, but still fairly solid for an R rated comedy. My biggest qualms were: why the fuck couldn't Doug have joined them? It would have set up some decent jokes with him being clueless and asking if this was what happened before. At least it would have been a slight change. Second, they took the Alan character and cranked the weirdness up to 11. He was strange in the first movie, but believably so. The second one? He did get kind of grating towards the end. 7/10